Commitment to Helping Stressed and Anxious Employees
Lisa Danels
Employee stress and anxiety isn’t well understood or is it often on an organization’s must-do list when it comes to making sure that the emotional, psychological difficulties of their people are shown care and significantly lessened.
There is value in paying attention, learning and showing compassionate responses. Lisa Danels talks about alleviating these pains and suffering. She is the founder and executive director at Human Edge and the author of “The Human Edge Advantage: Mastering the Art of Being All In.”
The book explores courage, fear, intuition, psychological barriers, disconnection, personal power, energy, purpose and other topics that challenge leaders. Additionally and more importantly, it offers actionable advice on how to develop self-mastery in confronting difficulties.
Executives and managers can learn how beneficial it can be for them and the organizations they lead to be concerned in deeper ways with their team members’ stress, anxiety and tolerance levels.
“Leaders can help create a more positive and supportive work culture. By showing that they care about the well-being of their team members, they can foster a sense of trust and loyalty within the team,” Danels claims. “This can increase job satisfaction, improve morale and (build) a stronger commitment to the team and the organization.”
She is not however saying that stress isn’t necessarily a negative.
“Remember that not all stress is bad. Distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy stress is paramount,” she teaches. “Healthy stress, also known as eustress, is a positive form of stress that can help to motivate and energize individuals, leading to improved performance and productivity.
“On the other hand, unhealthy stress, or distress, is a negative form of stress that can harm an individual’s physical, mental and emotional health, decreasing resiliency.”
It isn’t always clear what employees are experiencing and feeling, making ever-present curiosity and communication vital.
The Human Edge Advantage, written by Lisa Daniels
“It’s essential for leaders to gauge their employee’s stress levels,” Danels advises. “Suppose there is too much unhealthy stress over time. In that case, people cannot solve problems, collaboration suffers and employees find it difficult to operate in new or challenging environments.”
That’s bad news by itself but there is an additional, unwanted cost.
“This can lead to burnout, which can cause moral issues in teams as others will need to pick up more work and the company has extra employment costs,” Danels suggests.
It’s helpful, she says, to “Think of stress like a bell-shaped curve.
“If you are in the first quartile, you don’t have enough healthy stress for high levels of productivity and performance. If you are in the second quartile, you operate at peak performance. If you are in the third quartile, you’ve moved into exhaustion for an extended period and the brain is on overdrive, reducing performance. If you ignore all the signs and push past your own limitations, then you can exhibit high levels of anxiety, ultimately leading to burnout.”
Which brings us back to her assertion that, “as leaders, we can help our employees know where they are on this stress curve and avoid people entering the danger zones.”
There is a quick tool that Danels recommends to communicate and learn where a leader’s people are emotionally and psychologically.
“Regularly ask your employees.
‘What is your stress level from 1 to 10, one as low and ten as very high?’
If they answer above seven, ask them: ‘What must you do to reduce your stress levels?’”
She brings up a hypothetical question since she knows some, or maybe many leaders will be thinking about it or verbalize it.
“As a leader, why should I intervene” she asks?
She is ready with a response.
“Unhealthy stress impacts performance while, at the same time, personal and professional relationships begin to suffer,” Danels begins.
“In high-stress states, people tend to have more difficulty managing conflict and often overreact as if it’s just one more thing to handle, throwing them over the edge.
“Relationships can spiral negatively, leaving a person feeling more alone and with little support to deal with life challenges.”
What’s more wise and far more helpful, she contends, is engaging with the desire and intent to sincerely be helpful in a manner that resonates positively with the individual or team.
“As leaders, when we help others manage their own stress, our employees will be happier and more well-adjusted,” Danels asserts.
This all starts by reframing how and what we think.
“We need to think differently about stress, as it is always a product of the mind and a projection into the future,” Danels says. “Sometimes, it’s as easy as getting people focused on the present moment and seeing what actions they can take, which calms them down and returns them to their power.”
There are more tools, as she calls them, to help your people reduce stress and build resiliency.
“As I outlined in my book, hope and optimism are essential to exceptional leadership.
“Optimism is a way of looking at the world and knowing things will get better, whereas hope is a process in which leaders can enable others to achieve their objectives in a different way that reduces stress,” Danels says.
These aren’t just words. She has steps for making it a reality and as she states, “turning hope into action and igniting possibilities.”
Step 1: Craft how the future could look better and what new opportunities might emerge. Answer the question: ‘How will the future be better than today?’
Step 2: Invite your team members to dream together and create a vision of the future, including ‘Mount Everest’- level goals, those that represent the peak, the culmination, the supreme achievement that we can imagine, well beyond ordinary success.
Step 3: Identify the milestones of success and determine how you will celebrate them.
Step 4: Brainstorm the potential obstacles hindering the achievement of the milestones and what new paths might need to be forged.
Tasks in any endeavor or organization have to be undertaken and accomplished yet Danels recommends shifting from being task oriented to focusing on purpose-driven action.
“As leaders, we need to encourage others to find their purpose,” she says. “According to McKinsey & Company, 70 percent of employees state that their sense of purpose is defined by their work, which means that today’s employees expect their jobs to bring a significant sense of purpose to their lives.”
Assisting employees in identifying and building purpose brings a multitude of organizational and leadership benefits.
“Purpose can be an essential contributor to employee experience, which, in turn, is linked to higher levels of employee engagement, stronger organizational commitment and increased feelings of well-being,” Danels lists.
Smart questions generate the needed answers that move the needle.
“Ask employees what they care about,” Danels advices. “Encourage them to find their passions and superpowers and use them at work.
Too many people resort to clock watching while they are working. Danels says that you have the ability to stop that human tendency and behavior.
“The expectation for employees to be constantly on the clock has intensified with the rise of off-site, hybrid work arrangements, flexible hours and the ability for remote log-ins, a situation further normalized by the pandemic.
“This has led to a blurring of work-life boundaries, underscoring the need for a more flexible approach to work that encourages a healthy blend of personal and professional life, as exemplified by IBM’s institutionalization of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and its positive impact on employee engagement and innovation,” she explains.
Work-life balance and employee satisfaction can be enhanced if you know how and are excited to commit to it.
“It’s recommended that leaders meet with each team member and find out how to manage their schedule best to meet their personal and work needs,” Danels says, because, “The answer for each person is very different.”
Another expected difficult mind shift is moving to focusing on regulating energy — yes — rather than the traditional expectation of managing time.
“What stresses out most employees is that they have too much to do in a given time window. We believe time is the most valuable resource we have. That simply isn’t true,” Danels contends. “It’s neither time nor the budget; energy overrides everything else.”
Resilience is a buzzword in online leadership conversations yet is it a common commitment and practice? It should become one because of its critical importance for everyone, executives included.
“When leaders communicate their need to build resilience, they unknowingly ask for guidance on how to balance, sustain, and renew the energy of their people,” Danels teaches, adding that, “Time may be a limited resource, but personal energy is renewable.”
She says that Tony Schwartz, the president and CEO of The Energy Project and Catherine McCarthy, tested the notion that simple rituals — such as taking brief breaks and expressing appreciation to others — can help employees regularly replenish their energy while building greater physical, emotional and mental resilience.
Increased trust in the workplace is going to produce welcomed dividends.
“Trust is the glue that holds our society together and enables collaboration across businesses,” Danels says. “Increased trust in the workplace yields several transformative benefits, key among them being: the enhanced collaboration and communication; authentic connections among team members — trust enables individuals to show their true selves, fostering authentic relationships, enriching workplace culture and strengthening team bonds, making collaboration more effective and enjoyable; higher employee engagement and morale — employees feel valued and safe, motivating them to invest more deeply in their work and the company’s success; and resilience in times of change — trust provides a stabilizing force that confidently helps teams navigate uncertainties and changes. Knowing they have the support and trust of their organization, employees are more likely to embrace change positively.”
Danels is a strong advocate for people repairing more offenses and hurts.
“It’s easy to look at the actions of others and feel hurt or offended through our own eyes and hearts. This state of offense causes extreme pain and disharmony, leaving us in a state of bewilderment,” she says.
“We need a good dose of self-awareness and to examine the emotional baggage we carry from the past, triggering us and leading us to reactive behavior. At the same time, we need to differentiate our emotional baggage from another’s and understand what triggers them.”
This is important because if this isn’t done individually, two negative energy sources can meet.
“Typically, emotional baggage hits emotional baggage, causing hurt and confusion on all sides, but getting clear on our baggage allows us to focus on our own distortions. Only when we get this clarity can we move from a space of reacting to responding in our personal and professional relationships.”
She addresses the reality of that behavior: reaction.
“If we break down the work re-act, we see we are reacting to something from the past. Typically, it’s a past unmet or expressed need, resulting in the expression of a negative emotion,” Danels says.
“When we reflect on what we needed in the past and what feelings emerged from past experiences, we can start the healing process. When we clean up our emotional baggage and remove the distortions, we can respond, share our hurts and disappointments with others, and, more importantly, have the courage to make requests to meet our needs.”
She is quick to remind us that progress doesn’t promise we will now be so evolved that we won’t act in error again.
“It doesn’t mean you will never react. Instead, use emotional reactions as a barometer, letting you know where you still need to do work,” she explains.
It can empower a person to be more who they want to be with people.
“This practice allows you to be more authentic and honest with others in your relationships, resulting in a more authentic connection to others,” Danels teaches.
Maintaining or repairing trust is an age-old assignment and difficult puzzle for many people. It can be done, however.
“Most of us take trust for granted in the workplace until it gets eroded or fractured through misaligned words and actions.
“Repairing trust in organizations often demands a multifaceted approach, as trust is a fragile commodity that, once broken, requires careful and deliberate actions to rebuild,” Danels says.
She explains her four-part remedy:
Encourage open and honest communication. Begin by creating a culture where giving and receiving feedback is normalized and seen as a constructive process.
Invite and give Feedback. Leaders should lead by example, inviting feedback about their actions and decisions and responding to them without defensiveness.
Demonstrate vulnerability. Admitting mistakes and taking responsibility for actions that may have broken trust is crucial. This openness fosters an environment of transparency and encourages others to do the same.
Reframe. Coach others to use their empathy and walk in the shoes of another colleague with whom trust has been broken. Encourage them to express their feelings to the other person and how it eroded trust.
Courage. Recognizing and rewarding courage when someone speaks up about their trust being breached reinforces the importance of trust and integrity within the company.
This approach will help to mend relationships and rebuild trust, contributing to a more cohesive and vibrant organizational culture.
